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Echo Show Not Responding to Voice Commands: 8 Quick Fixes

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When your smart home speaker, like the Echo Show, ignores your commands, it’s incredibly annoying. This device is crucial, often acting as the central control point in your living room or managing kitchen timers.

This article breaks down how to fix your Echo Show when it stops listening, tackling everything from setting mishaps and unexpected glitches to network troubles.

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1. Unmute Your Echo Show

If your Alexa isn’t responding, check for a red bar at the bottom of your Echo Show’s screen. This means the microphone is muted, similar to the Alexa Red Ring indicator. Unmute to get back to chatting with Alexa.

A muted Echo Show, as indicated by the icon and red bar

To unmute your Echo Show, simply press the button on top marked with a circle and a line. It’s nestled between the volume decrease and increase buttons, making it easy to find and use.

Unmute your Echo, and it instantly obeys your commands. If it’s not muted and still unresponsive, let’s explore some additional solutions.

2. Power Cycle Your Echo Show

Resetting Alexa is straightforward and risk-free. Electronics, including Alexa, occasionally encounter glitches that a simple reboot can fix. Just unplug it and plug it back in to refresh its system.

  1. Unplug your Echo Show.
  2. Wait 10 seconds.
  3. Plug it back in.

Once Echo reboots, try a voice command again.

3. Check Your Internet Connection

Echo devices, such as the Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8, need a steady internet connection to understand your voice commands. If they’re offline and you try to speak to them, you’ll likely hear an error. However, it’s a good idea to verify your connection to be sure.

To check your Wi-Fi, switch to a different device like a computer or tablet. If you opt for a smartphone, remember to disable mobile data to ensure it’s connecting via Wi-Fi. This simple step helps pinpoint the issue.

When your internet stalls, try rebooting your router first. If that doesn’t do the trick, reaching out to your internet service provider is a wise move, especially if there’s a local outage.

4. Restart Your Router

Before you start, ensure your home network is solo-use. This step might disconnect your internet for up to five minutes.

  1. Unplug your router and modem. If they have batteries, remove those, too.
  2. Wait 30 seconds.
  3. Plug them both back in.
  4. Wait up to five minutes for your Wi-Fi connection to come back online.

Check your internet connection to confirm it’s up and running. If it’s down, reach out to your internet provider since the issue might not be with your local network. If your internet is fine but your Echo Show isn’t cooperating, we’ve got more tricks to try next.

5. Look At Alexa’s Voice History

The Alexa app stores every command you’ve spoken to your devices. By reviewing this history, you can see if your Echo picked up and correctly interpreted your requests.

To check your history:

  1. Open the Alexa app.
  2. Navigate to More -> Activity -> Voice History.
  3. If you have multiple Alexa devices, use the dropdown by Displaying to limit the history to only the Echo Show you are having problems with.
An example of Alexa voice history

If your Echo ignores commands, it might not understand you. Explore other fixes below if you see no response at all.

6. Change Alexa’s Wake Word

If you own several Alexa devices, they might mix up commands. To avoid this, assign a distinct wake word to each device.

Currently, you can choose from five wake words. For homes with over four devices, ensure each one uses a unique wake word to avoid confusion.

To change the wake word:

  1. Open the Alexa app.
  2. Go to Devices -> Echo & Alexa.
  3. Select your device from the list.
  4. Press the gear icon in the top right to open Settings.
  5. Click Wake Word.
  6. Select whichever wake word you want to use.
The Alexa app wake word selection screen

7. Factory Reset Your Echo Show

Reset your Echo Show easily using its touchscreen. Here’s how:

  1. Swipe down from the top of the screen to bring up the menu bar.
  2. Press Settings in the menu bar.
  3. Scroll down in the Settings menu until you see Device Options. Press that item.
  4. Scroll through the Device Options menu until you see Reset to Factory Defaults. Press that to reach the confirmation page.
  5. Press Reset to finish resetting your Amazon Echo Show. This is the last confirmation step, so make sure that you understand the impact before you click.
  6. Wait for your Echo Show to reset. This process will take 2–3 minutes, during which time the device will restart.
The Device Options screen on Echo Show, highlighting the factory reset option

8. Contact Amazon Support

If all else fails, your next step is to seek help from tech support. The Alexa app offers a straightforward method to connect with their team for assistance.

Head to More -> Help & Feedback to find the “Speak with a representative” link. Click it, and Amazon support will call you back right away. They really mean it when they say “immediately.”

If you reach out to support, they’ll guide you through familiar steps, similar to what we’ve covered. Don’t worry about redoing them. Support teams have special tools and data that we don’t, making it smart to follow their lead for the best fix.

What’s Next?

Adjusting to the Echo Show might take a bit of effort. It operates differently, lacking an action button, as detailed here. Techniques you’d usually use to fix a non-responsive Alexa device often fall short with the Show, as discussed here.

After fixing this glitch, your Echo Show will transform into an indispensable component of your smart home ecosystem. It stands as the heart of an affordable Alexa network, offering a seamless method to send commands to your Roomba or manage WiZ lights that work with Alexa.

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